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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27244342">the will of our goddess.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlesianic/pseuds/atlesianic'>atlesianic</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Rewrite, Corruption, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, traitor qrow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:27:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27244342</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlesianic/pseuds/atlesianic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>what if qrow realized just how well he would fit behind enemy lines?</p><p>I DO NOT CONSENT TO THE REPOSTING OF MY WORKS.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi, Qrow Branwen/Ozpin, Qrow Branwen/Tyrian Callows</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the will of our goddess.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>a little self-indulgent corruption arc!qrow stuff. this includes a lot of headcanons and some super jumbled writing, so i apologize for how all-over-the-place this might be, but i'm trying to just write what comes out of my head instead of trying to format it to be "presentable."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <b>
    <em>THE WILL OF OUR GODDESS!</em>
  </b>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>qrow crashes into the snow, feathers flying behind him as he slams into the icy ground in a landing that’s only half-successful. his wings were getting caught in the wind of the crashing transport and he had no choice but to transform back mid-flight. luckily, all of his injuries are superficial, bruises and scrapes that his aura quickly works to heal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>luckily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>oh yeah.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>qrow chokes as kingfisher’s cable wraps around his throat and yanks him back. a burst of feathers and inky black smoke saves his hide, and he rolls back onto his feet behind clover, who whirls around with wide eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“how did you--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>he doesn’t have time to finish his sentence, as qrow charges at him with harbinger’s blade extended. clover catches it with the rod of his weapon, sparks flying as they push against one another. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“clover, just stop it now!” qrow roars.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“it doesn’t have to be a fight! robyn is </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she needs help! just surrender and--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“no! i didn’t do anything wrong!” qrow grunts and kicks clover in the stomach, and he stumbles back with a snarl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>tyrian wakes to the sound of clashing metal and the harsh yelling of the fighters nearby. the airship around him is in flames, made safe only because the fuel burned off on the way down, and thrown a good thirty or so feet away from him, he can see robyn’s body. he wonders if she’s dead. if she is, it’ll save him a lot of trouble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>but for now, he’s more concerned with his restraints.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>it takes a bit of finagling, but tyrian manages to successfully pop his thumb out of place (and sweet goddess, what a heavenly feeling, electricity running along his arm and down his spine making his tail twitch and his eyelids flutter) and slip out of the tight metal cables. putting it back in place is just as easy (the crack of bone against bone is like music to his ears, and he shudders at the ecstasy of it all) and he marvels at his handiwork before reactivating his aura and grabbing his weapons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>he’s slow at first, entering the fight. he wants to see how qrow is doing, how clover fares against him. tyrian knows that qrow is one hell of a fighter; he has the broken nose to prove it. but clover is also one of atlas’ best huntsmen. to see the two of them clash like this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>when qrow knocks clover back a good distance, tyrian steps in, his boots crunching in the snow enough to alert the two huntsmen, as well as his trademark giggle. qrow quickly looks over his shoulder at the hunter, narrowing his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“you bastard, you almost got us killed--!” he starts, gesturing angrily with harbinger’s blade. tyrian waves a hand dismissively as he makes his way to qrow’s side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“and you didn’t lose a single feather, did you, little bird?” he purrs, licking his lips as he stares down clover across the way, who looks very confused at the fact that qrow isn’t panicking seeing tyrian freed. “are you ready?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“ready as i’ll ever be.” qrow confirms, turning to glare back at clover. his eyes go wide when it finally starts to click.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“qrow, you’re--” clover’s shock is brutally interrupted by a harsh cackle from tyrian, as he lunges across the snow to swing at the other’s jaw. of course clover counters it, and qrow takes the distraction as his cue to jump into the fray.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>this isn’t according to plan. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“we’re going to need you to disrupt things from the inside.” arthur told him, handing over a scroll that must be of his own design. qrow had never seen one like this before. “however you can, of course. sow dissent, doubt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“divide them.” qrow quipped, turning the scroll over in his hands. when the screen lit up, it displayed the doctor’s signature emblem before fading to a home screen with a few sparse applications on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“precisely.” arthur said, nodding. “the contacts in that scroll are all dummy accounts; they will all contact me, and no one else. you report your findings through that, and we’ll give you any updates the same way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>qrow nodded and pocketed the scroll, making a mental note that he’d keep that one in his front pocket, and the one james gave him in his back pocket. he turned toward tyrian, who had busied himself on the bottom steps of the abandoned home with sharpening the edges of his gauntlets. “and you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“i’ll be staying in mantle.” tyrian told him, a sing-song tone in his voice. “we need to make sure jacques’ claims against ironwood are substantiated!” he ran his tongue along his teeth before laughing and striking the floor in front of him with his tail. the sudden noise made qrow jump, and arthur laughed. “sow dissent,” tyrian purred. “doubt.” the parroted words sent a chill down qrow’s spine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“as for you,” arthur continued, positioning himself between qrow and tyrian, his arms crossed behind his back. “we have a few targets to eliminate as well. clover ebi, the leader of the ace operatives, has a peculiar semblance, the antithesis to your own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“yeah, i know.” qrow muttered, his lip curling in anger as he glared to the side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“with someone like that on james’ side, he has a decided advantage against us in almost every move we can make. we need him dead, or at the very least off the battlefield when salem arrives.” arthur brushed past the vitriol in qrow’s voice like it was nothing. “can you do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“yeah, i can do that.” qrow answered, crossing his arms. “what else?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“we need location tabs on ozpin. the scroll i gave you has a tracker attached to it that you can remove and adhere to whomever you wish. i suggest the boy’s shirt collar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>that’s easy enough, qrow thought. a well-placed pat on the back could give him more than enough access to slip the little tracker under oscar’s lapel’s. no--not oscar. arthur told him back in argus that he had to treet the boy as ozpin, as that is the threat he poses to them. ozpin’s lapels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“after that, we need you to secure the lamp.” arthur finished. qrow scoffed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“is that all?” he spat, cocking a brow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“watch your tongue.” arthur warned. tyrian giggled from the corner, which earned him a swift glare from the good doctor. “james trusts you. the two of you are part of ozpin’s inner circle, after all. not only that, but ozpin’s host, the man himself, and the students traveling with you believe you to be their sole protector. i suggest you use that to your advantage and </span>
  <em>
    <span>bring us the lamp</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>harbinger flies out of qrow’s hand and lands in the snow too far away from him to try and grab it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>clover is breathless, sweating, tired. as it turns out, qrow and tyrian make quite the pair when they fight together and not against one another. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“you’re a traitor.” clover spits, hatred in his voice. “james trusted you with his life!” qrow lost sight of tyrian earlier, but if he can keep clover talking, they can gain the advantage. “i wanted to trust you too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>he lets out a cry of pain as tyrian flies in, slamming his fist--which is glowing a threatening violet--into clover’s stomach. pale green aura crackles along clover’s body, shattering like glass under the power of tyrian’s wicked semblance and a hit that hard. qrow takes off immediately, getting a running start toward his blade as he snatches it up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“i think it’s admirable, you know.” clover said, smiling as he looked over his hand of cards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“what is?” qrow asked, reaching for the deck to draw another. he decided against it and laid out a card of his own on the table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“kicking the alcohol.” clover said, dropping his hand with a smirk. he won, of course. qrow groaned and tossed his horrible hand on the table. “james told me you drank, but… never really said how bad it was.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>clover knew about the farm. about the apathy and how far qrow let himself fall. he didn’t know why it had happened, of course, but qrow needed trust. that was a good way to earn it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“yeah…” qrow sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “i guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>clover stood up then, his heavy boots clanking against the metal floors as he made his way to qrow with a soft smile and a twinkle in his eye. he bent down, bringing the two of them to eye level. “what did i say about giving yourself more credit?” he mused, laughing to himself. clover leaned in then, pressing a soft kiss to qrow’s lips that he was quick to return. “it’s admirable, qrow.” clover assured him. “i think it says a lot about you, that you’re trying to get better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>qrow smiled, almost sheepish. at first, it felt bad to lie to clover. to pretend and put up this big charade. he’d never intended for the plan to go like this, but with clover sleeping in his bed every night, it was easy to whisper things and start rumors and learn what he needed to know. after a while, the guilt faded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>now it was just fucking funny.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“thank you.” he said, reaching up to caress clover’s cheek with his hand. “says a lot about you that you put up with me.” clover laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“it says that i love you, little bird.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>the sound clover makes is horrific. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>it’s a gurgling, like trying to blow water through a tiny hole. blood flies out of his mouth and lands on qrow’s face as he sinks harbinger into his chest, burying it to the hilt. clover’s crying. the pin on his lapel comes loose and falls, tinking against harbinger’s blade before falling to the snow between qrow’s feet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>qrow’s face is twisted into a furious snarl, teeth grit and red eyes burning with hatred. he leans in as close as he can, watching clover’s face twitch and his body shake with pain as his brain tries to process what’s happening to him. “bad fucking luck, clover.” qrow spits.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>he rips the blade out hard, sending blood splattering along the snow in a wide arc and tearing open clover’s stomach in the process. something fall out of him with a wet splat, and he follows shortly behind, dropping to his knees to fall face first into the snow. the ground beneath clover starts to turn red as he bleeds out, the cold and his ruined aura making quick work of killing him. qrow hands tyrian his scythe, letting the hunter’s fingerprints cover his own before it’s thrown to the side and discarded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“how… c-could… you…?” clover manages to croak out, reaching forward to weakly grab qrow’s pants with a shaky hand. blood pours from his mouth like a waterfall. it’s almost pretty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“fuck off.” qrow hisses, kicking his foot to shake off clover’s hand. it doesn’t take him long to die, whispering his final breath into the snow as blood continues to ooze from his mouth and the enormous hole in his torso.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“now what?” qrow asked, looking over to tyrian as he re-dressed himself. the hunter laughed and spun around to face his lover.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“now you do whatever you’d like, little bird.” he muses, crawling back onto the dingy hotel mattress with a giggle. his tail snaked around qrow’s waist to pull him close, earning a nearly-embarrassed smile from the huntsman. “your life starts anew, my dear. all of remnant is yours to take hold of!” those long, cold fingers twisted and fell into place at qrow’s jaw, tyrian’s sharp nails toying with the facial hair there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“yeah, i get that, but--what about ruby? yang? my sister--?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“the overachieving brats who demand you follow them despite your years of seniority? the traitorous bitch who turned against you and ran at the first sign of trouble?” tyrian snorts. “what about them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>he’s right, and qrow knew it. he’s been a huntsman for most of his life, but ruby and yang have only been training for a few years. did everything he knew, everything he’d been through, mean nothing now that they knew the truth? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>but tyrian understood. he understood what it was like to be born broken, to be shunned your entire life and treated like a monster for things you simply cannot control. the world saw tyrian as a monster, and he gave them what they wanted and became a monster. and what did they do to him? they hunted him, hurt him, broke him even more, until the only saving grace he could find was in the arms of a demon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>in fact, qrow was learning that salem has a propensity toward broken individuals. arthur doesn’t talk much, but he told qrow the short version of why he joined salem. about james taking credit for all of his hard work and choosing someone far less qualified to take over important projects, about the way his parents raised him and how badly they treated him. qrow had asked him what he did when he was finally free, what he did when he could finally leave it all behind and join salem. arthur laughed, and his eyes glowed a vibrant emerald green, and he’d said, “i beat my parents until i was practically making wine. and now, i’m going to destroy atlas from the inside out. what sweet justice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>and hazel. ozpin had told him about hazel, years and years ago, long enough for him to forget the name until it was too late and he was on the receiving end of one of the brute’s left hooks. ozpin’s story was that hazel was out of his mind from the beginning, driven mad by grief and fury, and had used violence to get what he wanted until he wormed the truth about salem out of the heartbroken professor and ran to her side for revenge. but arthur told him that wasn’t true. and the funny thing was? qrow searched for hazel’s name online and found everything. he’d just never bothered to look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>as it turned out, hazel led a pretty outspoken group of activists who had all lost loved ones thanks to the negligence of the huntsman academies. in many of the articles written about him, the young hazel spoke about how ozpin justified gretchen’s death by telling him it wasn’t a teacher’s place to interfere with a mission, and she was well aware of the risks she was taking when she applied to the school. after years of picketing and petitioning and protesting, hazel and his group got fed up and started rioting. when that didn’t work and hazel was left to fight on his own, he started killing huntsmen until ozpin told him the truth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>or at least his version of the truth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>and cinder, the half-human maiden that stole the life of one of ruby’s closest friends, was a child prostitute. her stepmother had sold her to traffickers who gave cinder’s body away to the highest bidder on a nightly basis. her semblance manifested during a particularly bad rape, and salem apparently found her surrounded by naked bodies impaled on glass spikes, her thighs covered in blood and her cheeks stained with tears. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>and qrow fit right in with them. shunned and exiled, hated by his own sister and blamed for every problem that happened in his vicinity. he’d spent his whole life fearing his semblance and hating himself, planning suicides and writing out farewell notes, burying his sorrows beneath countless bottles of whiskey. and tyrian had taken his hand and called him a hero.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“yeah. guess you got a point.” qrow shook his head. “tai gave ‘em everything they could’ve asked for. spare the rod, i guess.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“exactly my point!” tyrian crooned, pushing qrow back into the pillows with a sharp laugh. “their fates are inevitable, whether you fight with or against them, darling. our goddess cannot be killed. she is eternal, and her will shall be done, no matter how hard these children try to fight it.” he laid himself across qrow’s chest, nuzzling into the crook of his neck with a contented sigh. “and now, you’ll get to stand with us and watch them all burn for what they’ve done. it’s only fair, i think.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“now?” tyrian giggles. “now you play along!” he spreads his arms out wide and trots to qrow’s side with a grin. he pulls the hem of his shirt from the thick belt at his waist and starts wiping the blood from qrow’s face, looking strangely peaceful as he does so. “your rescue will be here soon, and they’ll need someone to blame.” he purrs. “you see, i’ve framed you for the death of your darling lover, clover!” he giggles. “and if miss robyn hill over there survived the crash, your only witness will have to believe anything you say.” with qrow’s face clean, tyrian pats his cheek. “so i’d get the waterworks ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>they kiss. tyrian’s lips are cold and chapped, but then again they always are. qrow doesn’t mind much. nothing about tyrian is soft. he’s nothing but jagged edges and harsh lines, but then again so is he. with every observation, qrow starts to wonder why it took him so long to join salem and leave ozpin far, far behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“so you…” qrow thinks for a moment as they part. “you crashed the ship and i resisted the arrest. clover and i were fighting and you got hold of my weapon and killed him before i could stop you.” he starts to smile. it could work. “and robyn won’t know the truth. and everyone back in atlas knows he and i were dating, so… i wouldn’t ever even dream of killin’ him.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>tyrian steps back and claps excitedly. “bravo, my dear!” he cheers, stretching his arms out wide. “a performance worthy of an encore!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>they both hear the airships incoming, closing in on their location. qrow steps back and tyrian gives him a little wave. “until we meet again, darling.” he purrs, and off into the horizon he vanishes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>qrow walks toward clover’s body slowly. his skin is already turning pale, his lips purple and mottled red from the blood freezing on his lips. harbinger lies nearby, covered in blood and with tyrian’s fingerprints covering qrow’s. the huntsman slowly lowers himself to his knees, picking up the bloody pin from the snow and tucking it away in his pocket. maybe it can be useful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>it isn’t hard for him to cry. he has no shortage of things to cry about. he hasn’t gotten a chance to mourn his old life, for example, even though it was built on lies. he thinks about summer. watching her empty coffin being lowered into the ground while ruby wails in his father’s arms and yang screams at the preacher to stop. his eyes sting, welling up with tears. he thinks about raven. about the years she spent protecting him from their father, feeding him when no one else would, but then turned her back on everything good in her life the moment she got scared. that first hot tear rolls down his cheek, a welcome warmth in the cold air. he thinks about tai and the bed of sunflowers in front of his cabin, which he only tends to when he thinks about killing himself. tai does a lot of gardening these days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>finally, he sobs. qrow bends over clover’s paling body as his shoulders shake. he thinks about ruby giggling and babbling at him as a baby, chewing on his cape, dressing him up, building her scythe, teaching her to fight, letting her cry on his shoulder after her first broken heart, telling her about her mother, seeing all the pictures she sent him of her time at beacon. he thinks about yang sniffling through her first haircut, scaring him half to death when she climbed to the roof while tai wasn’t home, asking him about her mother, falling in love over and over again, her tears after the vytal festival. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>but then he thinks about tai telling him to never set foot in his house again, telling him that he’s put these horrible things into his daughter’s heads, that his life would have been so much better if he’d never been a part of it. he thinks about raven calling him a coward for following ozpin, about her denying their bond after they’d been through so much. he thinks about all of ruby’s friends pointing their weapons at him, unprovoked, while she stood there and said nothing. he thinks about ozpin holding him, kissing him, telling him every lie he ever wanted to hear just to get him to follow and obey. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>by the time the backup arrives, qrow is wailing. but sweet goddess… <em>all he wants to do is laugh.</em> </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>check me out on tumblr!</p><p>http://atlesianic.tumblr.com<br/>http://atlesianic.carrd.co</p></blockquote></div></div>
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